


intoxication & cellular transmissions

by Rustyanklebraclet



Series: Community episode rewrites [1]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: se01e16 communication studies, First Kiss, Fix-It, Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27125134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rustyanklebraclet/pseuds/Rustyanklebraclet
Summary: “Anyways,” Abed says, voice returning to a normal volume, “it seemed narratively imbalanced that Jeff gets to make two drunk dials to people he’s romantically involved with, and I made none. Adam even called his ex-girlfriend. So I thought I would call you.”---Jeff isn't the only one that makes a phone call.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: Community episode rewrites [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772773
Comments: 20
Kudos: 212





	intoxication & cellular transmissions

**Author's Note:**

> this was my piece for the (boy)friends weekly fanzine!!! get it [here](https://gumroad.com/l/YRAON)!
> 
> sorry that i haven't been posting recently! school has just been.... a lot.
> 
> this takes place (obviously) during 01.16
> 
> enjoy!

**Troy Barnes (feb 13, 3:39 pm)** _whre r u??_

 **Abed Nadir (feb 13, 3:44pm)** _spanish room, filming t.c.c.c._

As Troy approaches the Spanish classroom, he’s surprised to see Jeff, of all people, leaving it. He spots Troy and gives him a tight smile.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, uh, I had to talk to Abed.”

“Is he in there?” Troy asks.

Jeff gives a brief nod and walks off, seeming distracted.

Sure enough, Abed is going over notes with fake-Pierce and fake-Troy, while fake-Chang is on the phone, shouting a violent string of curses to rival the real Chang. Abed notices Troy and waves him over as fake-Troy and fake-Pierce collect their things.

“How’s it going?” Troy asks, and Abed shakes his head as he looks over his script, writing in minor adjustments.

“My only semi-decent actor has an ego to match the man he’s playing, and the others are starting to say that they’re going to walk if he doesn’t stop having temper tantrums. The issue is that, while they’re nowhere near him in performance quality, it’s going to be a massive problem if I lose three-quarters of my cast.”

“Oh, damn,” Troy says, rather dumbly, unsure how to respond.

Abed hums in agreement.

“Do you need something?” Abed asks him “I'm almost done here, but I have plans with Jeff at four.”

“Is that why he was here?”

Abed nods. “Britta drunk dialled him, and he needs to drunk dial her in return so that he can restore balance to things. I’m going to oversee it all, make sure he doesn’t screw it up.”

“What are the chances that he does anyway?”

Abed looks up from his script, finally, eyes trained on the blackboard ahead as he squints, calculating.

“Sixty-three percent.”

**\---**

Troy gets to school early the next day, wanting to get out of the house before his father wakes up and starts talking to him about Valentine's day.

(“I’m starting to grow concerned about the lack of a woman in your life, Troy,” his father had told him just a few days earlier, when Troy revealed that he wasn’t going to the upcoming dance because he didn’t have a date “When was the last time you went out with a girl? These are the prime years of your life. I don’t want you to waste them.”)

Annie gets there early most mornings anyway, so he’s waiting for her to arrive so that he can see if she’ll help him finish his Spanish homework; the study group had gotten distracted when they had met yesterday and hadn’t gotten to finish it. He’s fiddling with his phone while he waits for her, and he notices he has a new message.

“Hi, Troy,” says Abed, voice coming as close as Abed gets to a slur as Troy holds the phone to his ear. He can hear Jeff, as well as another voice that he doesn’t recognize, yelling over music in the background.

“Jeff just called Britta. He called his girlfriend first, actually. I don’t even know how he mixed them up. It’s very exciting, though, in terms of storytelling.”

Abed is briefly interrupted by Jeff yelling, seemingly at no one in particular. The message seems like it's going to be mostly nonsense, but Troy doesn’t have anything better to do than listen to it.

“Anyways,” Abed says, voice returning to a normal volume, “it seemed narratively imbalanced that Jeff gets to make _two_ drunk dials to people he’s romantically involved with, and I made none. Adam even called his ex-girlfriend. So I thought I would call you.”

Abed pauses, and sounds wistful when he speaks again.

“We’re not romantically involved, technically, but neither are Jeff and Britta. Their tension is objectively there, though, whereas ours is more subtext that would most likely only ever be picked up on by queer audiences. Add on the fact that you clearly aren’t even _aware_ of how easily our relationship can be interpreted romantically, even though other people do it constantly, and I’m hopeless.”

“What did you say, Abed?” He hears Jeff call, from somewhere nearby.

“I’m hopeless,” Abed says, slightly louder, and Jeff seems to accept this, because his voice drops again. “I don't even know if you _do_ feel the same way. The creepy bi guy that preys on his trusting friend would align with the Hays Code far more than a genuine romance. My only hope is that we don’t end up and a Joey and Rachel type of situation. Though I think we’re too early in the series for that kind of desperation.”

Abed starts to say more, but Troy sees Annie coming down the hallway, grinning and waving excitedly when she spots him, and abruptly deletes the message, shutting off his phone.

**\---**

The rest of the day is a blur. Somebody plays a poorly-timed prank on Chang that he and Pierce get blamed for, and he ends up spending his afternoon with Pierce and Chang shopping for brightly-coloured ladies pantsuits. Pierce is planning revenge on whoever played the prank, and Troy usually loves a good scheme, but his heart isn’t really in it.

Chang drives them back to the school, and Troy sits in the back with Pierce (Chang tells them that he doesn’t let “loser virgins” sit in his passenger seat) and tunes out Pierce's grumbling about being a size fourteen in favour of thinking about the call.

Well, less the call itself, and more what he’s going to do. The truth is, he’s been nursing a minor crush on Abed for months. The problem is that he doesn’t know how to say “Hey, so, you got super wasted last night and called me and confessed that you were in love with me to my voicemail. And you probably don’t even remember, but there’s no way I’m ever going to forget, and I don't know what you want to do and I think I’m going to screw up our friendship if I ask, but I don’t want to _not_ ask,” in a natural way.

(Actually, maybe he’ll just say those words exactly. Abed doesn’t mind Troy info-dumping like that, just spewing out his thoughts. Troy thinks he might even prefer it.)

He gets to the study room, and Pierce is still complaining about his size. Annie says something to calm him down, though, and they tell the girls about their lead in the prank case.

Then Abed and Jeff come in, and what little progress he had made in trying to forget about the whole thing comes crashing down as Abed sits next to him. Troy doesn’t say anything the whole meeting, which Abed would usually notice, but Abed looks like if he tries to speak he’s going to vomit all over the table.

Troy hangs back afterwards, though. He needs to talk to Abed about it now, because he’s going to lose the little shred of courage (rather, the little shred of adrenaline) that he has if he postpones it.

Everyone else has left, and Abed is collecting his things. He seems slightly less close to death, and his sunglasses are in his bag, so Troy isn’t _as_ worried about him vomiting anymore.

“Are you going to the dance?” Troy asks, in a painful attempt at small talk. Abed shrugs.

“I don’t have a date. Normally, that wouldn’t stop me, and I would just go to observe, especially since we have multiple plotlines this week that are going to wrap up there. But I think I’m just going to go back to my dorm. Jeff broke me.”

Abed turns, and he’s about to leave, and Troy still hasn’t said anything, so he ends up blurting out, “Who’s Adam?”

Abed stops, and turns to him, brow furrowed. “Adam?”

“You, uh, you called me last night and left a message. You mentioned a guy named Adam.”

“Oh. He was the pizza guy, he hung out with us for a bit, but he went home around three.” Abed pauses, and his frown deepens. He opens and closes his mouth a few times before he speaks, and his voice is careful, calculated. “Did I… say anything else? In the message?”

“A few things, yeah.”

“What were they?”

Troy hesitates, and that’s the only answer Abed needs.

“Ah. That’s what I was afraid of.”

Before Troy can say anything else, Abed turns on his heel and leaves, expression unreadable. Troy is too stunned to go after him.

**\---**

Troy has a few hours before the dance. normally, he would have just gone to Abed’s dorm to kill time, but that’s clearly not an option.

He calls his dad, tells him that he’s going to the dance after all.

“Oh, you found a date?”

“No, er-” If Troy’s dad is this bothered by him not going with a girl, he doesn’t really want to know what he’s going to think of what’s actually going on in Troy’s life right now. “I’m just going with some of my friends.”

There’s a heavy silence.

“Which friends?”

“I’ve told you about them. The study group, the ones Nana met. And you’ve met one of them yourself a couple times, Abed.”

"The skinny Indian kid?”

“He’s not Indian, but sure.”

“Right. Is he going to be there?”

“I’m, uh, I’m not sure,”

At least that part isn’t a lie.

**\---**

Several hours later, the dance has passed (relatively speaking) without incident. Though he doesn’t think he can ever look Chang in the eye again. Or Pierce. Or Annie and Shirley. Or anyone else that was there. But it’s fine. He has other concerns. And then Peirce ditches him for Chang, which is less fine, but still manageable.

Again, bigger things to worry about. 

“SLUT!” Troy screams, as Peirce and Chang speed away.

He sighs, and suddenly realizes how vulnerable he feels in the thin pantsuit. He adjusts his scarf, as though that’s going to make things better, and he notices Abed sitting on the step in front of him. He’s not looking at Troy, just staring into the distance, but he’s obviously noticed that Troy is there.

“Hey,” Troy says, gingerly sitting next to him, leaving a gap between them.

Abed replies with a clipped “Hey,” after a moment, but doesn’t look at him.

“You came,” Troy says, and Abed doesn’t respond.

“Look, Abed,” Troy begins “about the message-”

Abed interrupts him with a raised palm “It’s fine, Troy. I understand.”

“Huh?”

“Whatever you’re about to say. That you don’t want to be friends, that you want me to leave the group, that you want me to switch the classes we have together. I’ll do it, or at least I'll do what I can. I won’t make things difficult for you. I’ve already processed all of it. I expected this to happen.”

“Expected what to happen?”

Silence, for a moment, before,

“An accidental confession. Maybe not these circumstances exactly, but I knew I was going to give myself away sooner or later.”

Abed takes a long breath, and lets it out.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m usually good at controlling things like this, but my feelings for you seem to be the exception to that rule. I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out already, honestly. I think most of the group already has.”

He faces Troy now, finally. His eyes shine, ever so slightly, in the dim wash of light streaming through the doors behind them.

“As I said, if you want to cut off all contact, I won’t get in your way. But I would appreciate it if you could keep the reason between us.”

Troy looks at him for a long, heavy moment. He doesn’t know what to say, doesn't know where to start on the never-ending list of ways Abed has gotten things wrong.

So, because he knows words will do nothing but fail him, he surges forward and kisses Abed on his stupid, beautiful mouth.

Except, Troy is still a little bit drunk from whatever was in Pierce’s flask (they had agreed that this wasn’t something either of them wanted to experience sober), and he can’t really see Abed that well, and he’s operating mostly on adrenaline. Also, he closes his eyes when he does it, in an effort to make it more romantic. So he kisses less than half of Abed’s mouth, and mostly sort of the space _beside_ said mouth. 

All in all, it’s remarkably awkward. He pulls back, and apprehensively watches a frowning Abed.

It’s not really a bad frown, though. More of a thinking frown. Troy takes comfort in that.

“Why did you do that?” Abed asks, after a moment, and Troy’s not prepared for how little of an answer he has.

“I’m, uh, I’m not sure. I wanted to, I guess? And it seemed like the moment called for it.”

“Whether or not the moment called for it depends on exactly what kind of story we’re telling here,” Abed fixes Troy with a direct gaze, now, scrutinizing to the point of invasive. “So, follow up question, do you want to do it again? Because if whatever this may turn into is just you getting something out of your system before Britta pops out a few of your kids and I'm the weird guy in your old photos who’s heart you don’t realize you broke, I need to walk away from this now.”

Troy frowns. “Why Britta?”

“It’s more narratively satisfying if you end up with a member of the group. Realistically, this would be Annie or Britta, but getting over her crush on you is an important part of Annie's arc this season, as those feelings are the main connection she has to her life in high school. The two of you ending up together would infringe on that.” Abed shakes his head. “Please answer the question.”

“I’ve tried to get this out of my system. It’s not going anywhere.” Troy pauses, then, “I'm not sure I want it to.”

“Oh, well, that’s… good.”

“Yeah,” Troy says, and he can feel his cheeks warming as he grins.

Troy looks down so his hand can find Abed's. He laces them together, and scoots closer so he can lay his head on Abed’s shoulder. He feels Abed's cheek rest on top of his head, and he squeezes Abed’s hand where it rests in his.

Abed brings their joined hands to his mouth, and presses a kiss to the back of Troy's.

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on [Tumblr](https://readandwritesilver.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/HOMINGPIGE0N) if you want
> 
> As always, any and all feedback is appreciated :)
> 
> Much love, Clover <3


End file.
